This Is What We Can Expect From Star Wars Battlefront This Year, EA Says

A roadmap for the season pass content due for release in Star Wars: Battlefront has been made public. Gamers who purchased the $50 season pass or those just curious about the free updates can now see what lies in store in the coming year for the sci-fi, first or third-person shooter.

Game Informer did a month-by-month breakdown of the updates that Electronic Arts and DICE will roll out for Star Wars: Battlefront, starting with the January content patch that includes Tatooine's Survival mode map having added mode support for Blast, Droid Run, Drop Zone, Hero Hunt, and Heroes Vs. Villains. There are also new Hoth outfits for Luke and Han.

The February update will contain a new Survival mission for Hoth. There's also going to be a new Hoth multiplayer map that features the game modes Walker Assault, Supremacy, Fighter Squadron, and Turning Point. This will be followed by a March update with a new Endor map for Walker Assault, Supremacy, and Turning Point.

According to EA, the season pass expansion packs will be available in four sections, including an Outer Rim pack in March, a Bespin pack in the summer (presumably June or July), a Death Star pack in the fall and a final pack in the early first quarter of 2017.

That would wrap up the season pass content for Star Wars: Battlefront, giving gamers a full year's worth of updates that include new maps, costumes and modes for some of maps.

The only two that really stand out is the Besin map and the Death Star. Originally EA and DICE had denied that the Death Star would be in this iteration of the game, but many gamers suspected that it would eventually arrive as DLC. They weren't proven wrong.

The only thing we don't know is if it will be a map inside the Death Star or outside the Death Star. If it's inside, it might be similar to Star Wars: Battlefront 2 where players fought across the large chasms and the Death Star's control room. If it takes place on the outside then expect the trench run to make an appearance, which is easily one of the most iconic segments of the Star Wars universe.

Besin is another interesting map choice...it was featured in the very first Star Wars: Battlefront from Pandemic, allowing players to fly around in X-Wings, Y-Wings, Tie Fighters and Tie Bombers across the sky platforms. It seems like it would be standard fare to have the map center around flying vehicles but all they say in the description is that it's “hunt or be hunted” within Cloud City on Bespin. That could mean an actual map on the Cloud City itself where players will partake in ground based deathmatches or it could mean aerial combat. We don't know...yet.

Throughout the year, EA and DICE will also be providing balance patches for the game, offering a more balanced way for players to engage in the modes without any single weapon being more advantageous than the other.

Star Wars: Battlefront has been a divisive game because some hardcore Star Wars fans love it while other hardcore fans of Pandemic's titles feel it's too shallow. Regardless of what people think, EA and DICE have made big bank on the game's sales and will likely continue to do so throughout the year as the season pass content drops.